Children's Day School embraces and accepts the challenge to recognize, learn about and understand our similarities and differences. At CDS, we are consciously creating a community where everyone feels welcomed, empowered, responsible and safe to be themselves. We understand that creating this kind of community is an ongoing process, requiring that we embrace conflict and learn from our mistakes. All members of our community are taught, and expected to use inclusive language, to challenge stereotypes, to stand up to discrimination and to promote equity.
Diversity in a classroom increases opportunities for learning. Classroom dialogue takes on depth when students and teachers approach ideas from a variety of experiences and perspectives. These conversations teach our students to affirm and celebrate our similarities and differences, furthering the fundamental understanding of the interconnectedness of humanity.
Learn more about diversity and inclusion at CDS:
In building and sustaining a diverse and inclusive school community, we start with the National Association of Independent Schools’ Principles of Good Practice for Equity and Justice. Our vision is to create a school where everyone feels safe to be him or herself, where all people feel they belong and are welcome, and where the uniqueness of each person is valued. And we back up that vision with specific goals, articulated by our leadership and embraced by our school community, that challenge us to take the concrete actions necessary to create a truly diverse and inclusive community.
Among these specific goals, one major goal adopted by the CDS Board of Trustees in 2007 is to create a school where no racial or ethnic group will be a majority of the student body, and where no child will be the sole representative in his or her grade of any major racial or ethnic group. We have already made great strides toward reaching this goal, and as a result of sustained efforts have significantly increased the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and family diversity of the CDS community. Overall, for the 2011-12 school year:
- 47% of our students are students of color; 49% of our preschoolers are students of color (preschool is CDS’ primary point of entry)
- 8% of our students come from LGBTQ-headed households
- 36% of our students pay sliding scale tuition; 24% of our operating budget is dedicated to sliding scale tuition, an unprecedented commitment among Bay Area independent elementary schools
- 32% of our faculty and staff self-identify as people of color
- several of our faculty and staff self-identify as LGBTQ
- many of our faculty and staff are bilingual Spanish/English
Diversity was one of the founding principles of Children’s Day School and remains a core commitment of the school community. During its California Association of Independent Schools accreditation in 2006, CDS received multiple commendations for its diversity efforts, including acknowledgement of the community’s “genuine, focused zeal in embracing and supporting the individual gifts of each student and the diversity of the school community as a whole."
The process of creating a truly diverse and inclusive community requires a complete and ongoing commitment to pluralism. In working together, mistakes are made and conflict occurs—but both are opportunities for the human imagination and its capacity for transformative empathy to grow and improve. A school culture that embraces these opportunities and nurtures that imagination is the same culture that is necessary for the delivery of excellent education.